That's what happened Saturday night Aug. 24 in the 1900 block of Chestnut Ave. LBPD Public Information Officer Sgt. Aaron Eaton confirms that at about 9:05 p.m. in the 1900 block Chestnut Avenue, three shots were heard. LBPD's helicopter unit ("Fox") assisted on the call but nothing was found.

Meanwhile, down on the ground, Facebook users were commenting on took place.

"So I'm assuming the helicopter on Magnolia is because of the three gun shots I just heard?"

A reader replied a few minutes later, "I heard them too but the helicopter didn't last very long."

Less than two weeks ago on Monday night Aug. 12 shortly before midnight, LBPD officers responded to the area of 7th St./Magnolia Ave. after residents reported hearing gunfire. At 11:56 p.m., officers were dispatched to the area of the 600 block of W. 4th St. after residents reported hearing gunfire.

Again, without a visible victim, officers were unable to find evidence that shootings occurred. Again: no evidence of shootings, no negative crime statistic despite what multiple residents heard.

One night earlier on Sunday Aug. 11 at about 9:35 p.m., officers were dispatched to the 1400 block of Orizaba Ave. regarding shots heard in the area. Again, officers searched the area but couldn't locate any evidence of crime/shooting. Again, no negative crime statistic recorded despite what multiple residents say they heard.

Small wonder residents roll their eyes in disbelief when politicians say "crime is down."

It's high time that Long Beach City Hall -- which boasts of high technology in several areas -- applies it by funding a state of the art gunfire location system. That was already done two years ago...but it was never deployed and the funding was undone by the Council last year.

In October 2011 -- with no audible LBPD objections -- the City Council allocated $350,000 from oil revenue to fund deployment of the ShotSpotter gunfire location system. About a year later, LBPD management said that in its view, there is no gunfire location system that presently meets LBPD's demands. That conclusion allowed the Council to divert the $350,000 set aside for ShotSpotter (a capital expense) to instead spend for LBPD overtime (an ongoing expense that is supposedly verboten under current Council policy.)

We think the real story may be a bit different. We speculate that when faced with a Mayor and Council majority who let LBPD staffing shrink while simultaneously failing to budget sufficient overtime, LBPD management concluded the $350,000 allocated for ShotSpotter would be better spent on OT.

The solution to this shouldn't be to ditch a high tech improvement that's now in use in multiple other cities (including part of the L.A. County Sheriffs' area.) The proper thing to do is for a Council majority to (at minimum) budget sufficient overtime AND fund ShotSpotter. Choosing one or the other is a false choice.

In our view, ShotSpotter would bring many benefits, including exposing the true "state of certain Council districts" and provide data showing what is now denied: that more officers are needed. That's inconvenient for some incumbents going into an election cycle...especially for those whose votes rubberstamped the shrinking of LB's police staffing.

This is precisely the moment when neighborhood groups in Wrigley, Wilmore City and central Long Beach need to speak truth to power. We urge residents fed up with hearing gunfire and helicopters in their neighborhoods to tell their Councilmembers publicly -- via Facebook -- that in the upcoming budget adoption process, they want the gunfire location system budgeted and deployed within the next six months.

The alternative is to accept a status quo that should be unacceptable for any Long Beach neighborhood.